CHARGERS: Bolts win ugly, make it a dirty dozen over Raiders

OAKLAND ---- It wasn't pretty. It surely wasn't perfect. The
Chargers' season opener was, however, a win ---- of sorts.

It took a suave two-minute drill directed by quarterback Philip
Rivers for the Chargers to eke out a 24-20 victory over the Oakland
Raiders at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Monday night.

The problem is, the Chargers didn't need to "just win, baby."
They needed to physically batter and blow out a seemingly inferior
Raiders squad for the 12th straight time, to shoot out of the gate
and erase mistakes of Septembers past.

That surely hasn't happened. Not yet, at least.

Instead, the Chargers settled for a victory that was sealed by
running back Darren Sproles' 5-yard touchdown run with 15 seconds
remaining.

"We have to do better than that. A lot better," outside
linebacker Shawne Merriman said. "We obviously finished, but we've
got to have a faster start."

As Merriman alluded to, there were issues with the way the
Chargers won. They couldn't establish the run. They were sloppy
with penalties and turned the ball over twice. The pass rush was
lackluster. Running back LaDainian Tomlinson sprained an ankle and
was absent during several important drives. And after injuries to
right guard Louis Vasquez (knee) and Pro Bowl center Nick Hardwick
(foot), the offensive line was left without a single reserve.

It might prove to be a blip on the radar, this tough jaunt to
victory. Then again, it might foreshadow something far worse when
quality competition comes calling.

Either way, the Chargers are 1-0.

"Any time you get a win in this league, it's a good thing," said
Rivers, who praised backup linemen Brandyn Dombrowski and Scott
Mruczkowski for solid play under duress. "I don't know about
'pretty' and 'ugly' and all that. It seems like we're expected to
win a certain way against Oakland because we have a streak going,
but there's no reason to assume that. You find a way to win.
There's no AP poll where votes matter. You just find a way to win
and move on."

For a while, it seemed as if the Chargers would find a way to
lose.

On a fourth-and-14 with 2 minutes, 16 seconds left, Raiders
quarterback JaMarcus Russell launched a 57-yard strike to receiver
Louis Murphy to help Oakland take a 20-17 lead. The heart-wrenching
losses of 2008, it appeared, were back again.

That might have been the case if not for Rivers' fourth-quarter
heroics.

"We're a resilient group, and that's what we're going to build
on," left tackle Marcus McNeill said. "We're going to take whatever
punches people throw, and then we're going to deliver the
knockout."

Sproles' final run was the means to victory, but Rivers provided
the substance. He went 6-of-7 for 79 yards on that fateful 89-yard
march to the end zone. The Chargers recorded 166 of their 317 total
yards on the final two drives while wiping out a deficit.

Rivers and his offense looked cool and calm during a must-score
drive, when failure would have been humiliating.

"People talk about quarterbacks that respond under pressure and
lead their team on a comeback, and I don't know (if) I'd want
anyone else doing it," Chargers coach Norv Turner said. "He's
performed in some really difficult situations like tonight."

The Chargers somehow emerged from the first half with the game
tied at 10-10. That was shocking, considering that Oakland
outrushed them 105-21 and nearly doubled their time of possession.
Yet Nate Kaeding tied the score with a last-second 47-yard field
goal.

The Chargers lost a fumble in the red zone ---- coughed up by
Tomlinson, no less ---- and probably would have trailed if not for
a pair of timely takeaways.

Quentin Jammer ended Oakland's opening drive with an
interception at the 5-yard line, which concluded a possession on
which Oakland ran right down the Chargers' throats. Inside
linebacker Stephen Cooper also stripped and recovered a fumble by
Darren McFadden that killed another prolonged and productive
drive.

The Chargers pulled ahead 17-10 on a 15-yard touchdown pass from
Rivers to Vincent Jackson that, for a moment, seemed destined to
end up in the grasp of an Oakland defender.